Sunday, May 24, 2015

Sabratha - Libya

Getting 135 is great and it gets even greater when you find out that one of the cards is from a missing UNESCO site, an hard to get one. This card is showing the theatre of Sabratha, an archaeological site inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.

Sabratha in the northwestern corner of modern Libya, was the westernmost of the "three cities" (Sabratha, Oea and Leptis Magna) of ancient Tripolitania. It lies on the Mediterranean coast about 66 km (41 mi) west of Tripoli.

The theatre was built in 175-200 AD, so it was started by Emperor Marcus Aurelius; the construction was continued by his son Commodus and completed with a lavish proscaenium by Emperor Septimius Severus who was born in Leptis Magna; this time frame is applicable also to the enlargement of the theatre of Ostia.

The area which best survived to our time is the base of the stage which was decorated with reliefs portraying gods and scenes from comedies and dances; the image used as background for this page shows a relief portraying Paris being asked by Hermes which of three goddesses was the fairest. - in:http://romeartlover.tripod.com/Sabrata2.html